Well I reckon I took enough pictures to make a Part 2 of this 5,400 mile road trip across the country and back, so here we go!
While I was in Richmond, VA visiting my Mother, I took a day to escape the Holiday madness of Family and drive up to Mount Joy, Pennsylvania to pick up another set of wheels for the FiST from forum member
@Melow. Super nice guy that held onto the wheels for a couple of months until I could come pick them up! Word on the street is, he's got a bunch of stock FiST take-off parts that he might have up for sale soon too!
Thanks again Sean!
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On the way back to Richmond, I needed some medicine(to deal with Family over the Holidays
), so I picked myself up a bottle of my favorite once a year Holiday Hooch.
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I headed down to Virginia Beach, VA(where I was born and raised blocks from the Atlantic Ocean) to visit my Father and more Friends and Family.
These pics were taken overlooking the Atlantic Ocean between 14th and 15th Street at the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier. I spent many a days here inhaling cheeseburgers at Ocean Eddie's Restaurant as a kid/teenager/idiot Surfing and chasing bikini's.
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This is overlooking Broad Bay, part of the Lynnhaven River, a tidal estuary on the northern side of Virginia Beach inside of the Chesapeake Bay. I spent most of my high school and early college years in this Bay on Boats and Jet Ski's, chasing even more bikini's.
It sure is nice to reminiscence on those times!
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Decided to do a little bit of exploring around the area and remembered that I wasn't far from the Historic Adam Thoroughgood House, one of the oldest surviving colonial homes in Virginia Beach, built in 1719. There's no shortage of History in Virginia, as it's literally the melting pot of History.
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The house is pretty well covered from view by Magnolia Trees.....
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While I was in Va Beach before making the journey back to AZ, the car desperately needed a tire balance and rotation, so I visited DIA Automotive at the recommendation of an old Porsche Shop I used to work for many moons ago. These guys work on a lot of nice tuner cars(if you take a look at their Instagram) and I was in and out within an hour after calling for an appointment the day before.
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Grabbed dinner with my Father's side of the Family in Town Center of Va Beach and snapped this picture of the evening's city skyline.
The building on the right is the tallest building in VA, the Westin at 508ft tall.
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I almost forgot that I purchased a used Pierce 6 point Lower Chassis Brace from a forum member earlier this year that I left in my Father's garage to pickup during my next visit across the country to avoid $170+ in shipping it back to AZ(a stupid quote that I got from a local UPS store), so that got loaded into the car along with the wheels for the journey back home.
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Did a complete once over on the car including a fluid and tire check before starting the 2500ish mile trek back West.
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Sunset just outside of Lynchburg, VA. Spent the night again at a friend's house in Evington, VA to break up the drive and headed out early the next morning bound for Little Rock, Arkansauce.
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I completed the Evington, VA to Little Rock, AR leg of the trip(882 miles) in 13hrs and 12mins which gave me an average of 66.8mph, which is actually not bad compared to the trip East, because Tennessee traffic occurred again.
This was a fresh start out of Little Rock, AR heading West the next morning. Long day/night ahead with Google Maps predicting a 1:06am arrival into Prescott, AZ!
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I think the car was being a little optimistic on my average MPG during this trip, which was also not a priority as much as time/distance was.
To be fair I don't think it was too far off from this, though.
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That Jeep Cherokee XJ is definitely the one pushing.
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The only Twisters that I saw driving through Oklahoma....
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If you've never had the chance to drive a G-Wagen, they're like driving a bank vault and I love them, but not enough to own one.
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Found the sunset just East of Albuquerque, NM. Going the distance, going for speeeeeed.
(Yes, the windshield is getting replaced soon)
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I arrived home in Prescott, AZ in a hair over 19hrs at around 2:30am, about 90mins behind schedule after dealing with 3in of snow on I-17 South out of Flagstaff, AZ, which murdered my average MPH down to 67.5mph over 1,282 miles.
I got up about 11am the next morning to around 18 degrees ambient to change the engine and gearbox oil(Gearbox gets changed at 15K or every 3rd oil change), clean my ITG Foam Air Filter w/ the PJ1 Kit, as well as install the new magnetic drain plug in the gearbox from
@ron@whoosh.
As much as I would've loved to have done this work inside of my nice warm garage, it's currently still occupied by my Jeep.
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The beginning mileage of this trip was 23,842 miles, ending the trip at 29,241 miles.
That concludes 5,399 miles on the FiST, over 14 days, 9 States and this car didn't miss a beat! I bought this car because I love to drive, and I knew this car would take me just about anywhere reliably, while having a lot of fun, and so far it has!
I love adventures in this car and though I didn't document this trip in much detail, maybe this'll inspire some of you to go take a few adventures of your own in your car!
Also, Happy New Year everyone!